Religious Leaders Warn of Genocidal War in CAR
Muslim and Christian leaders said a genocidal war could break out in the country if action is not taken as soon as possible.
The leaders of the CAR’s Muslim and evangelical Christian communities as well as the archbishop of Bangui urged the UN to promptly deploy peacekeepers to the country.
They made the plea during an informal UN Security Council session on Friday.
"When somebody is in agony, they expect anything, anything to save someone's life," Nicolas Guerekoyame Gbangou, the president of the country's Alliance of Evangelicals, said, adding, "We say to the Security Council, anything to save the Central African Republic is welcome."
"I am optimistic that Muslims will return to Bangui," Oumar Kobine Layama, the president of the Central African Republic Islamic Community, said after the session, adding, "But it depends on the security situation."
The UN chief's special adviser on genocide prevention told the participants of the session that about 80 percent of the country’s Muslims have either been killed in the sectarian violence or fled.
The UN has described the displacement of the Muslims of the Central African Republic as ethnic-religious cleansing.
The conflict in the CAR erupted after Christian militias launched coordinated attacks on the mostly Muslim Seleka group, which toppled the government last March.
Christian militias, however, have been targeting the Muslim population as a whole.
French and African peacekeepers are on the ground, but they have been unable to stop the violence and even in some occasions are accused of killing Muslims.
So far, thousands of people are believed to have been killed and more than one million displaced.
Source: Press TV
